Grandson Ayden, Having a Moment. 2007. Here we are in Eastertide, ticking off the Sundays until Pentecost. We’ve just celebrated the Resurrection–the miracle of all miracles, the day that changed everything. So I’m wondering, while we’re feeling all holy and justified and sanctified, could we make a commitment to resurrect civility? Because last time I checked […]

Daughter Elaine, Off the Coast of Raiatea, Society Archipelago, French Polynesia. January 2004. Beseech Him with me: Hope for Vanuatu. Blue Skies for Guam and her neighbors. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into […]

Gara’s Lovely Mugs Do you ever read those giveaway tabloids that are full of ads? You know the ones I mean. They usually have some enticing special offer from the local oil change shop or storage yard, but most of the ads are classifieds placed by people hoping to unload everything from old suitcases to guinea […]

My Brother, Cousin Marcia, Cousin Hugh. Ca. 1969. [Click here to read the beginning of this story. Click here to read its conclusion.] Walking the Ruins We pull into the parking lot and panic overwhelms me. I glance at my cousin Hugh in the back seat and see, for the first time, what others […]

My Husband After Falling on His Backside While Tending a Line Aboard Our State’s Official Tall Ship, the Californian. October, 2008. A Plea for Decency I am now an official curmudgeon. I came to this conclusion while driving home from work last Thursday. I was listening to the radio as I made my way home, looking forward […]

Meet Sheila

Sheila Seiler Lagrand, Ph.D., earned her doctorate in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, she studied anthropology and literature with an emphasis in writing. But her dad would tell you that she's been writing since she was big enough to hold a pencil.
Sheila has contributed to several edited volumes. Her Christmas story, Kathi Macias' 12 Days of Christmas: Volume 8: Yankee Doodle Christmas, released in December of 2013. In October of 2014, her serialized novel, Remembering for Ruth, based on the characters of Yankee Doodle Christmas, released. Sheila also worked on a collaborative romance novel, The San Francisco Wedding Planner, just for fun. Her essay, "Strip Tease" appears in Soul Bare, edited by Cara Sexton and releasing in fall, 2016 from InterVarsity Press. Currently she is working on a book about family relationships across multiple generations.